Squarepoint Ops LLC Acquires 178,016 Shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its holdings in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 523.3% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 212,037 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after purchasing an additional 178,016 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC’s holdings in Illumina were worth $22,132,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its position in Illumina by 426.0% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 15,460 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 12,521 shares during the last quarter. Findlay Park Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Illumina during the first quarter worth about $100,120,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Illumina in the first quarter worth approximately $4,527,000. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in Illumina by 33.9% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 31,600 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $4,339,000 after acquiring an additional 8,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in Illumina by 41.4% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 390,035 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $53,560,000 after purchasing an additional 114,263 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ILMN. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Illumina in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. Daiwa America raised shares of Illumina to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Illumina from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Illumina from $119.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their target price on Illumina from $176.00 to $164.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $151.05.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of Illumina stock opened at $132.27 on Friday. Illumina, Inc. has a 52 week low of $89.00 and a 52 week high of $148.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $125.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $120.42. The company has a market cap of $21.07 billion, a PE ratio of -16.23 and a beta of 1.15.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $1.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 3.08% and a negative net margin of 68.73%. Illumina’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Illumina, Inc. will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Illumina Profile

Illumina, Inc offers sequencing- and array-based solutions for genetic and genomic analysis in the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through Core Illumina and GRAIL segments. The company offers sequencing and array-based instruments and consumables, which include reagents, flow cells, and library preparation; whole-genome sequencing kits, which sequence entire genomes of various size and complexity; and targeted resequencing kits, which sequence exomes, specific genes, and RNA or other genomic regions of interest.